DrRanjanaSrivastava OAMOAM

Speaker Profile

Dr Ranjana Srivastava is an internationally-renowned oncologist and healthcare authority, as well as award-winning author and broadcaster.

Educated in India, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, she graduated from Monash University with a first-class honours degree and several awards in medicine. Ranjana undertook her internship, residency and specialist training at various Melbourne hospitals.

In 2004 she won the prestigious Fulbright Award, which she completed at the University of Chicago. She was admitted as a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 2005 and started practicing oncology in the public hospital system. In 2014 Ranjana was recognised by Monash University as the Distinguished Alumni of the Year. She was also appointed an adjunct associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. Ranjana was included in Westpac’s 100 Influential Women of 2015.

Ranjana’s writing has been published worldwide, including in Time magazine and The Week, and in medical journals The New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Journal of the American Medical Association and Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care Management. In 2008 her story Ode to a Patient won the Cancer Council Victoria Arts Award for outstanding writing. Ranjana’s inaugural Melbourne Magazine column was featured in the Best Australian Science Writing of 2012.

Her first book, Tell Me the Truth: Conversations with My Patients about Life and Death, was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award. Her second book, Dying for a Chat: The Communication Breakdown between Doctors and Patients won the Human Rights Literature Prize. Her two books on navigating cancer, A Cancer Companion and After Cancer: A Guide to Living Well have been warmly reviewed and widely used.

Ranjana is a regular columnist for The Guardian newspaper. She is also a health presenter on ABC television and ABC 774 radio. She speaks frequently on health matters, ethics and doctor-patient communication at scholarly and community events. She has appeared at the Melbourne Writers’ Festival, the Wheeler Centre for Books and Ideas, the Sydney Writers’ Festival, the Adelaide Festival of Ideas, the Williamstown Literary Festival and many other events.